Field hospital opens in Gaza ‘as a last resort’ – MSFpublished at 08:35 British Summer Time
Meanwhile in central Gaza, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has opened a field hospital in Deir Al Balah to treat hundreds of patients who were evacuated from the city’s main hospital at the weekend.
Around 650 patients were forced to leave the al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah on Sunday following an evacuation order by Israeli forces, and an explosion around 250 meters from the hospital, MSF says.
MSF says the first patients are arriving but it warns that there’s a severe lack of supplies and resources.
“Field
hospitals are not a solution, but a last resort in response to Israel’s
dismantling of the health care system,” MSF says in a statement.
According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), 20 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are now
non-functional, and temporary structures like field hospitals lack the capacity
for advanced surgical care, and many other lifesaving essentials to treat
patients in critical condition or with long-term medical conditions.